Lawrence's community hospital, LMH Health, is expanding and acquiring other area healthcare businesses. It's also looking for new ways to cut costs. The hospital will soon eliminate health insurance and vacation time for some of its part-time workers. By January, LMH Health will discontinue these benefits for three dozen employees who work less than 24 hours a week. In the first of a two-part interview, KPR's J. Schafer speaks with the President and CEO of LMH Health, Russ Johnson, to learn more about these changes and other issues affecting the hospital.
Lawrence Journal-World article, by Chad Lawhorn, mentioned in the KPR interview above.
Post Script to interview:
On Wednesday, KPR News contacted the LMH Health Board of Trustees for comment. Specifically, we asked whether there was any interest in revisiting the decision to eliminate health insurance benefits for certain hospital employees. Initially, board members were contacted collectively, where all trustees were copied on the same group email. The hospital's attorney intervened and responded on behalf of the board. That email exchange is posted, below. Subsequently, and on the same day, each trustee was contacted separately. The same basic question was asked, but this time, it was directed to each board member individually. As of 11:45 pm Thursday, not one board member had responded to our request.
